Records with a wonderful story behind their release usually turn out to be highly satisfying and `BFI' by `The Dragons' is no exception. Obsessive record collector Strictly Kev aka DJ Food weeds out a 500 run private pressing of a surf movie entitled `A Sea For Yourself" and finds the track `Food for my Soul' from an 70's psychedelic band on it. Utilising his extensive network of contacts he tracks down a member and asks permission to use the track on a mix. This leads to the revelation of a whole unreleased album by the band and upon consecutive listens, Ninja Tune decide to release `BFI' 37 years later.
The Dragons are 3 brothers who lived, surfed and gigged around the Malibu area of LA in the late sixties. After finishing BFI in 1970 they were met by scepticism by major labels who `weren't ready for it'. This hidden 11 track gem is a true psychedelic soul/rock gem which contains all of the stylistic characteristics of the care-free era but these are wrapped in a slightly left field and experimental soundscape which utilises space age sounds, ambitious layering techniques and a multi-dimensional vocal style which pre-dates contemporary vocal fashion. Just check out `Pop's Bag', a strong summery track containing vocals which eerily sound like Badly Drawn Boy.
With `Bfi', the Dragon brothers showcase an expert ability to carve delicious male and female vocal harmonies, which although not as catchy as their more pop-orientated counterparts, nevertheless delve deep into the late 60's west coast ideology and exude class. Just check out `Sandman' or `Are You There?' which implement a successful formula of busy percussion, heavily processed and deftly crafted 'hazy summer sun' guitar melodies, deep layering techniques and sublime vocals.
Furthermore, the album showcases some seriously funky and well arranged grooves which switch intermittently in order to stop proceedings from becoming too formulaic, and in addition to this listeners are treated to stretched instrumental passages in the place of formulaic choruses and treated to some ultra tight and sharply produced drumwork (just check out the freaked out mechanised drum solo on `Sunset Scenery' which precedes `This Heat's' innovative '24 track loop' track by several years). One of the strongest tracks on the album is `Amplified Emotion' which effectively utilises a dark and meandering organ melody which provides the foundation for spaced out guitar manipulations, twinkly effects and lush harmonious vocal delivery.
The album inevitably contains a small number of insipid tracks which tend to pass the listener by, however they won't have you clambering for the remote control. Surprisingly the track, `Food for my Soul' (the track which DJ Food first heard and which was the catalyst for the release of the album) isn't the strongest track on the album by a long shot due to it for-going the psychedelica elements in favour of a funkier aesthetic which comes across as a tad `lite and airy'.
I can understand why this record may have had difficulty in being released back in 1970 as it wasn't conformist or catchy enough to seduce big labels yet it wasn't experimental or freaked out enough to be released on innovative independents. Even though BFI found itself in this position, it satisfyingly isn't a diluted, image over substance slice of psychedelica. Indeed it is a expertly crafted slice of the true 60's sound and features fantastic arrangement and instrumentation, especially in regards to percussion. Ultimately, `BFI' succeeds in transporting you straight to the golden-era and successfully invokes images of hazy, sun-drenched beaches (RM).
For fans of: David Axelrod, Beach Boys, Andy Votel reissues
